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Multiple-Meaning Words

A multiple-meaning word is spelled and said the same way but means different things: a bat flies at night, and you hit a ball with a bat. Context is the only clue, which is why these words are such good reading practice.

Here are 124 multiple-meaning words from past ClueBy puzzles, each with a real example sentence for every meaning. Use them as a reference, or make a printable worksheet below.

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Students read each sentence and write the missing word. Every word appears in several sentences, each time with a different meaning.

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Multiple-Meaning Words

Name: ____________________Date: __________

Write the missing word in each sentence. Each word is used more than once, with a different meaning each time.

  1. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  2. Its rival in the ________________ War, the Soviet Union, exploited this at the time.
  3. I'm the one who owns all this ________________.
  4. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  5. He had ________________ pain while walking.
  6. False peace will not ________________.
  7. The giraffe protected her ________________ with great courage.
  8. Don't ________________ yourself. You couldn't afford to buy a house like this.
  9. The pointer is employed to find upland ________________.
  10. Roulette is a ________________ of chance.
  11. When are we going to ________________?
  12. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  13. At ________________, we arrived at the village.
  14. Today is the ________________ day of the holidays. Back to school tomorrow!
  15. I had chicken pox when I was a ________________.
  16. Algeria is a ________________ of gas and oil.
  17. The office ________________ worked quickly and efficiently to resolve the problem.
  18. The water is too ________________.
  19. It's hotel ________________. Please let me in.
  20. The giraffe did all she could to defend her ________________.
  21. We've got to handle this with ________________ gloves.
  22. I had a bad ________________ and was in bed for a week.
  23. The old man leaned on his ________________.
  24. That was a fun ________________.

Sentences from ClueBy, Tatoeba (CC BY 2.0 FR) and Common Voice (CC0). clueby.com

Answer key

  1. clip — for paper
  2. cold — the Cold War
  3. land — ground
  4. clip — a video
  5. calf — of the leg
  6. last — to go on
  7. calf — a young animal
  8. kid — to tease
  9. game — wild animals
  10. game — a kind of play
  11. land — to come down
  12. clip — to cut
  13. last — finally
  14. last — final
  15. kid — child
  16. land — a country
  17. staff — employees
  18. cold — not warm
  19. staff — employees
  20. calf — a young animal
  21. kid — young goat (kid gloves)
  22. cold — an illness
  23. staff — a stick
  24. game — a match

Multiple-meaning words list

Tick up to 10 words to build a worksheet with just those words.

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Frequently asked questions

What are multiple-meaning words?

Words with the same spelling and pronunciation but more than one meaning, like bark (of a dog or of a tree) or bank (for money or of a river). You can only tell which meaning is meant from the rest of the sentence.

Are multiple-meaning words the same as homonyms?

Mostly, yes. Teachers often use "multiple-meaning words" and "homonyms" for the same idea. Homophones are different: they sound alike but are spelled differently, like flour and flower.

Are the worksheets free?

Yes. Make and print as many as you like for home or classroom use. Each sheet has its own link, so you can print the same one again.

Where do the words come from?

From past ClueBy puzzles, a daily game where you sort twelve sentences by their missing word. A new puzzle every day adds four more words to this list.

Sentences from ClueBy, Tatoeba (CC BY 2.0 FR) and Common Voice (CC0). clueby.com